Orienting hopper



July 13, 1954 s. c. BAEHR ORIENTING HOPPER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan.15, 1952 INVENTOR.

- SYLVESTER C. BAEHR ATTORNEY) Patented July 13, 1954 ORIENTING HOPPERSylvester C. Baehr, Cheektowaga, N. Y., assignor to Wiesner-RappCompany, Inc., Buffalo, N'. Y.

Application January 15, 1952, Serial No. 266,577

3 Claims.

The invention relates in general to hoppers, and more particularly tohoppers and sorting devices of the type designed for feeding irregularlyshaped objects, such, for instance, as the bars or segments ofcommutators of electric motors or generators.

In handling irregularly shaped objects such as commutator bars, it isnecessary that the articles be discharged from the hopper in the samerelative positions. In the case of commutator bars, which are of wedgeor segmental shape in lateral cross section, it is desirable that thewider portions of the bars be disposed in the same relative positions asthey are being discharged from the hopper.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a hopper of simpleand inexpensive design which will assure uniform delivery of thearticles each disposed in the same relative position.

Another object is to provide for the discharge or relief of articlesthat have become wedged or jammed in the entrance of the feed chuteextending from the hopper.

Moreover, the device is provided with a light spring at the entrance endof the chute which will permit articles that are misaligned and havebecome wedged to tilt sidewise and be discharged from the upper end ofthe chute before entering the passageway thereof.

Th above objects and advantages have been accomplished by the deviceshown in the accompanying drawing, of which:

Fig. l is a front elevation of the device with portions thereof brokenaway for clearness of illustration;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on line II-II of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view showing portions of the device;

Fig. i is an enlarged fragmentary front elevation. of the device;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view of the hopperwheel showing one of the articles in correct position within the slotthereof and is taken on line V-V of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a similar view showing one of the articles incorrectlypositioned in one of the wheel slots; and,

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on line VII-VIIof Fig. 4, showing The wheel is provided with a forwardly extendingcasing l4 which has a flange I5 extending in wardly at an angle, therebyproviding a magezine for initially receiving the article in disarrangedcondition. The working face it of the wheel is inclined backwardly froma vertical plane whereby the articles are urged against the face of thewheel by gravity as the wheel is rotated. The wheel I0 is formed on itsforwardly extending face with a series of radially arranged slots 28.Since the device is designed primarily for feeding commutator bars whichare tapered or wedge-shaped in cross section, the bottom of each of theslots 20 is inclined in cross section so that an article which isproperly arranged in the slot will have its top surface substantiallyflush with the face it of the wheel ready to be fed to the chute 2! asshown in Fig. 5. Any article which is incorrectly positioned will beprevented from passing into the chute as clearly shown in Fig. 6. Asshown in these two views, the article 22 is correctly positioned,whereas the article 23 is incorrectly positioned and is thereforeprevented from passing into the chute by means to be hereinafterdescribed.

The wheel 19 is formed with a central opening 2 3 within which ismounted a stationary core 25. This core is formed with a stud 26 whichpasses through the shaft H of the wheel and is stationarily secured inthe standard l3. The wheel it which is mounted upon the stud 25 isdriven by means of a pair of bevel gears 39, one of which carries adrive shaft 3!. As the wheel is rotated, the articles in the magazineare agitated and a number of them are dropped into the moving slots ofthe wheel, as clearly shown in the drawings and are carried thereby upto a position near the vertical centerline of the device where thosethat are properly positioned will be discharged by gravity and droppedinto the chute 2!.

In order to segregate the incorrectly positioned articles from thosewhich are correctly disposed, a selector plate 32 is arranged adjacentthe face of the hopper wheel Ill and is arcshapecl in form so as toconform substantially to the opening 2t thereof.

The inner edge of this selector plate extends into the central opening il of the wheel so as to prevent the passage of the articles out of theslots until each slot has reached a position near the top of the wheel.The plate is formed at this point with a cut away portion forming apassageway 33 which preferably extends to the end of the plate. The topsurface of this passageway lies in substantially the same plane as theface !6 of the wheel so that the bars occupying the proper positionswithin the slots will be free to pass through the plate passageway whilethose occupying the reverse positions will contact the plate and becarried around to the end thereof, whereupon they will be dropped backinto the magazine.

The advance end of the selector plate extends around toward thedirection of rotation of the wheel a sufiicient distance to interruptand support all of the articles which may be carried by the adjacentslots and urged by gravity toward the center of the wheel. .Thesearticles will be carried around by the wheel until the slot holding themreaches the passageway in the plate whereupon they will be dropped intothe chute if correctly positioned.

A support 34 for the chute 2| is carried by the core of the device andthe upper end of the chute is secured thereto as clearly shown in Fig.3. The chute is formed with a slot 35 throughout its length for thepassage of the articles, and the slot is preferably covered by means ofa cover plate 36. A slot is formed along one edge of the cover platewhereby the position of the articles may be observed and through whichthey may be fed manually, if so desired, by the insertion of a tool.

The upper end of the chute is provided with a lip 4| in the form of aplate 42 which is of sufficient width to support the articles as theyare being discharged from the wheel slots. At one side of the late thereis a guide block 43 which has a tapered or inclined surface 44 forproviding a wall at one side for guiding articles into the mouth of thechute. The opposite side of this plate is unobstructed and a rejectspring 45 is carried by the chute and is arranged near the bottom ofthis unobstructed side of the plate. Any misaligned article will notrest against the spring which is relatively light and such article willbe pushed laterally oif of the plate by the next successive article andfall back into the magazine. In Fig. 4, a number of misaligned articlesare shown in approximately the position occupied prior to beingdischarged. The chute channel is somewhat wider than the width of thearticles. In order to further prevent the possibility of clogging thechute by incorrectly fed articles, an inclined deflector flange 46 isprovided at the upper end of the chute cover plate 35, whereby shouldtwo articles ride one upon another, as shown in Fig. '7, the toparticle, shown in dot and dash lines, will be tilted and fall into themagazine.

Since the articles being handled by the device are of copper, it ispreferable, in order to perpetuate the smooth operation of the device,that the surfaces of the wheel as well as the surfaces of the chutewhich are contacted by the articles be chrome plated and polished so asto avoid the accumulation of copper dust upon the surfaces which retardsthe smooth action of the device.

From the foregoing it will be obvious that when the hopper wheel is setin motion and the magazine has been supplied with a number of articles,the article in disarranged condition will be agitated and will findresting places within the passing grooves or slots of the wheel. Thesearticles will, therefore, be longitudinally positioned in the correctdirection when the point of discharge into the chute is reached, butobvious- 1y, they will not all be correctly positioned laterally. Asthey are carried up in the slots and as they approach the verticalposition, gravity will cause them to be moved down in the slots untiltheir lower ends contact the selector plate 32. The articles will beheld in position against the selector plate until each of the slots hasreached the central position where they come into registration with theselector plate passageway 33, whereupon all correctly positionedarticles like that shown at 22 in Fig. 5 will fall by gravity throughthis passageway, and normally these articles will slide down the chuteplate into the mouth of the chute and be conducted thereby to themachine which is to receive them. Obviously, all incorrectly positionedarticles like the article 23 of Fig. 6 will be prevented from passingunder the outer surface of the passageway 33 of the deflector plate butwill contact the upper surface thereof and be carried around to the endof the plate where they will be discharged and dropped again into themagazine. Any articles which reach the chute lip plate in misalignmentlike those shown in dot and dash lines in Fig. 4 will be pushedlaterally of! the plate at its free edge and be dropped into themagazine where they will subsequently be picked up again by the wheel.It will thus be clear that all articles which pass from the wheel intothe chute will be correctly positioned, and that should any of thearticles become disarranged before passing into the mouth of the chute,they will be readily ejected by the next article which passes throughthe passageway of the deflector plate.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination, a hopper for receiving irregularly shaped articles,and a feeder for discharging said articles in predetermined attitudestherefrom, said hopper including a rotatably mounted hopper wheel havingits working face inclined backwardly from a vertical plane, pickup meanscarried by said wheel for engaging articles in disarranged relation whendisposed in the bottom of the hopper and for conveying them to anelevated gravity feed position, said feeder comprising selector meansdisposed adjacent said gravity feed position and formed with apassageway of fixed shape to selectively receive and to pass articlespresented thereto by said wheel in a predetermined attitude, a chutecommunicating with said selector means for receiving and for feedingsaid articles in said predetermined attitude, the chute having apassageway of a width greater than the width of the articles, a guideblocl; having an inclined surface at one side of the entrance end to thechute and having a height slightly greater than the height of theadjacent wall of the chute, an opening in the side wall of the chuteopposite the block, and a relatively light spring projecting into theopening in the side wall for guiding the articles into the chute, thespring being flexible under pressure exerted by a misguided article topermit it to be discharged through an opening in the side wall.

2. In combination, a hopper for receiving irregularly shaped articles,and a feeder for discharging said articles in predetermined attitudestherefrom, said hopper including a rotatably mounted hopper wheel havingits working face inclined backwardly from a vertical plane, pick upmeans carried by said wheel for engaging articles in disarrangedrelation when disposed in the bottom of the hopper and for conveyingthem to an elevated gravity feed position, said feeder comprisingselector means disposed adjacent said gravity feed position and formedwith a passageway of fixed shape to selectively receive and to passarticles presented thereto by said wheel in a predetermined attitude, achute communicating with said selector means for receiving and forfeeding said articles in said predetermined attitude, the Chute having apassageway of a width greater than the width of the articles, adischarge opening in the side Wall of the chute at the entrance endthereof, a cover plate disposed on top of the chute at the entrance endthereof to define the upper surface of the chute passageway, and aninclined deflector flange formed at the advance edge of the plate toguide misaligned articles through the discharge opening of the chute.

3. In combination, a hopper for receiving irregularly shaped articles,and a feeder for discharging said articles in predetermined attitudestherefrom, hopper including a. rotatably mounted hopper Wheel having itsworking face inclined backwardly from a vertical plane, pickup meanscarried by said wheel for engaging articles in disarranged relation whendisposed in the bottom of the hopper and for conveying them to anelevated gravity feed position, said feeder comprising selector meansdisposed adjacent said gravity feed position and formed with apassageway of fixed shape to selectively receive and to pass articlespresented thereto by said Wheel in a predetermined attitude, a chutecommunicating with said selector means for receiving and for feedingsaid articles in said predetermined attitude, the chute having apassageway of a Width greater than the width of the articles, a guideblock having an inclined surface at one side of the entrance end to thechute, an opening in the side wall of the chute opposite the block, acover plate disposed on top of the chute at the entrance end thereof todefine the top surface of the passageway, an inclined deflector flangeextending upwardly from the entrance edge of the plate, the guide blockbeing of such height that it extends substantially to the top of thedeflector flange, and a relatively light spring projecting into theopening in the side wall of the chute for guiding articles into thechute, the spring being flexible under pressure exerted by a misguidedarticle to permit it to be discharged through the opening in the sideWall.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 2,060,182 Dellaree Nov. 10, 1936 2,433,096 Davis Dec. 23, 19472,554,788 Merchant May 29, 1951

